Posted on 05/14/2008 1:25:26 AM PDT by Aristotelian
If the McCain campaign is still trying out songs, there's one by a couple of Brits, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, that it should consider. We have to change the words "an Englishman" to "American" to get it to work, but, that done, the song expresses succinctly and entirely the case for John McCain and, by implication, against Barack Obama:
For he himself has said it, And it's greatly to his credit, That he is American! That he is American!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the sum total of the Republican message this year. That is why McCain's first post-primary ad proclaimed him "the American president Americans have been waiting for." Not the "strong" or "experienced" president, though those are contrasts he could seek to draw with Obama. The "American" president -- because that's the only contrast through which McCain has even a chance of prevailing.
Now, I mean to take nothing away from McCain's Americanness by noting that it's Obama's story that represents a triumph of specifically American identity over racial and religious identity. It was the lure of America, the shining city on a hill, that brought his black Kenyan father here, where he met Obama's white Kansan mother. It is because America is uniquely the land of immigrants and has moved beyond a racial caste system that Obama exists, has thrived and stands a good chance of being our next president.
That's not the America, though, that the Republicans refer to in proclaiming their own Americanness. For them, "American" is a term to be used as a wedge issue, a way to distinguish their more racially and religiously homogeneous party from the historically more polyglot Democrats. Such separation has a long pedigree:
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
How did such an a-hole get his own newspaper column?
Simple. It’s the Washington Compost. It may safely be ignored.
I am glad that McCain is claiming to be the American candidate. And by inference Obama and Clinton not American candidates. The rats are the antithesis to America and we need to start relating that point. No more free ride for traitors and fools! I am holding off on my decision of whether to vote for McCain or not...but, this is definitely a check in the vote for column.
I've also posted that the glue which holds together the ravening (self) interest groups which make up the Democrat party when their own greed and lust for power should spin them asunder, is a rationalization that we are racist and they are not.
So they play the race card. Those that do are demagogues.
This author is not even good at it.
I like how they always go on about how Obama’s mother was a girl from Kansas. Like she wasn’t a flaky, clueless hippie.
McCain is demanding we play for the Republican Team.
McCAin has made his mark by not being a team player.
McCain is surprised when nobody respects his lack of leam loyalty.
Can't wait to mail him a scorching note in his prepaid envelope he provides me.
The author goes back to 1936 to find a Republican to backup his thesis. That must be the same year that Robert Byrd said “You know what? We need more Blacks, Catholics and immigrants in our party.” (sarc)
This dork needs to stop complaining. He’s getting a liberal president one way or another.
Some people you just can’t please.
The author goes back to 1936 to find a Republican to backup his thesis. That must be the same year that Robert Byrd said “You know what? We need more Blacks, Catholics and immigrants in our party.” (sarc)
You know, I just made an interesting connection because of your post. A few years back Thomas Sowell recommended some books in a column. One of which was a trilogy: The Americans by Daniel Boorstin. The first two books of which I found fascinating. And one of the points he made in the second book was that the Louisiana Purchase was controversial on several counts.And one of the implications of that last point was the massive immigration from Europe to the US which naturally ensued. Since their practices tended to deplete minerals from the soil, the cotton planters of the South had an appetite for virgin land. But they also disliked the dilution of the significance of their states-in-being, as they were. When you point out the KKK antipathy to Catholics and immigrants you cause me to recognize the connection between the Louisiana Purchase and nativist KKK concerns.
- We know, of course, that as a strict constructionist President Jefferson was discomfited by the fact that the Constitution didn't specifically say that the POTUS had the right to buy land.
- And, obviously, the expense would have been an issue - tho, in the event, the expense did not prove to be a difficult burden for the country.
- But the sheer scale of the opportunity it presented was actually an issue that seriously concerned people. Naturally that was the very thing which made it impossible to refuse but, given the fact that the population of the country was already dangerously thin (which was the only reason Great Britain had any hope of conquering it, as it attempted to do in the War of 1812) it was an embarrassment of real estate riches.
I’m not on board as to how the process at the convention works, but is there any way that he can be denied the nomination?
In the first televised debate, put all the candidates in soundproof booths and make them sing the national anthem and God Bless America from memory. That will cut through a lot of BS.
Be sure you go to Home Depot first and buy a brick or concrete block. Tape the prepaid envelope to the large object and mail it back to the McCain campaign. He needs to experience the full weight of your opinion.
Mccain will be strong on defense. Other then that he’s nothing but a converative democrat.
Still better then Obama but its like saying a pimples better then a boil.
Maybe 'moderate democrat', but I wouldn't label any group he joins as 'conservative', certainly not in the Zell Miller mode of conservative Democrat. And even the term 'moderate' is arguable, there was nothing moderate about his attack on the 1st amendment or his support for open immigration.
He might be for a large Armed Forces, but whether he'd use it for real defense is another question. He isn't going to control the borders, for example.
We basically have a very simple choice. Support John McCain with everything we have (and hope that it is enough) or live in an Obamamerica and for at least the next four to eight years.
I am not looking forward to what our country will be after a few years of Obama.
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